VOL. 54, NO. 29 • MAY 2 - 8, 2019
Honor and Protect our Elders During Older Americans Month
Diverse, Spry Centenarians Hailed at Annual Luncheon
AFSCME Campaign Engage Young People of Color Ahead of 2020 Election
By James Wright WI Staff Writer
‘I AM – Be the Change’ Builds on Legacy of MLK, Memphis Sanitation Workers
of more than $3,000 — an amount they said cuts into their profits. The Gerimas have since taken their fight to city hall, where D.C. council members have mulled a bill to alleviate their financial burden. “Sometimes, I feel like I work for the city,” said Shirikiana Aina Gerima, co-owner of Sankofa Video & Books, named after her and husband’s critically acclaimed 1993 film about the return to one’s African identity. “[To make ends meet], we rent
In the not-too-distant past, if someone reached the age of 100, society considered that person to be ancient and functionally useless. Today, those who reach 100 are not considered to be outliers but a standard of living that should be aspired to. That message came through clearly at the 33rd annual Salute to Centenarians at the Kellogg Conference & Hotel Center on the Northeast campus of Gallaudet University on April 29. “Today, we recognize the extraordinary D.C. seniors who got us to where we are today and continue to help move us forward,” Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said to the 61 honored guests and their family and friends. “My administration is committed to making the investments that keep D.C. an age-friendly city where we grow together, age together and, like we did today, celebrate together.” The Social Security Administration says there are 300 centenarians living in the District. In 2014, a report for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 72,197 Americans were 100 or older, and that number has likely increased because studies over the past three decades have shown that people are living longer and the death rate has fallen in recent years.
SANKOFA Page 34
CENTENNIALS Page 17
By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer @StacyBrownMedia A District-headquartered employees’ union has launched an interactive campaign to engage young people of color ahead of
CHANGE Page 38
Capture the Moment Page 36
5 The DC Department of Aging and Community Living celebrates over 200 D.C. residents who are over 100 years of age. Vanilla Beane, a popular milliner who continues to work in her shop every day was one of those honored at the luncheon held at the Kellogg Conference & Hotel in Northeast on Monday, April 29. (Shevry Lassiter/The Washington Informer)
Sankofa Bookstore Fights for Property Tax Relief By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins
5 Sankofa Video and Books store is hoping that a bill being introduced to the D.C. Council Committee on Business and Economic Development will offer equitable relief to help keep its doors open. (Shevry Lassiter/The Washington Informer)
As Haile and Shirikiana Aina Gerima have come to learn, operating a bookstore on what’s now one of the District’s fastest-growing corridors comes at a cost. In recent years, the husbandand-wife duo had to expand and diversify their offerings to pay their ever-rising property taxes. But not even that strategy could soften the blow of an assessment that deemed them responsible for a monthly tax
Celebrating 54 Years of Service / Serving More Than 50,000 Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area